Enteral tube feeding is known for feeding patients such as infants or children who are unable to ingest foods orally. The enteral tube is inserted either orally or nasally, through the oesophagus and into the stomach and is used to deliver nutritive liquid feed to the stomach of the infant or child for digestion. One end of the tube remains external to the patient and is used for connecting an enteral feeding syringe for delivery of the liquid feed. The opposing end of the tube is located in the stomach of the patient to which the liquid feed is delivered.
A variety of enteral feeding tubes including polyurethane and silicone tubes are used for more than a single delivery of liquid feed to the patient to avoid problems associated with frequent insertion and extraction of feeding tubes. For example, polyurethane feeding tubes are generally used for up to about 30 days while silicone feeding tubes can be used even longer.
A connector at the end of the feeding tube that is external to the patient is used for connecting the enteral feeding syringe to the feeding tube. Alternatively, a connector at the end of an enteral feeding extension set is used for connecting the enteral feeding tube to an enteral feeding syringe.
Improvements in enteral feeding syringes are driven by the desire for increased safety, usability and improved performance.